How to do one

1. Pick the day. An actual day, on your calendar. Not “sometime.”
2. Read the story out loud. Twice. Out loud matters more than you’d think.
3. Close your Bible and tell the story back in your own words — say it out loud or write it down. If it comes out thin, you haven’t got it yet. Read it again and tell it again. This is the test, and it’s the step everybody skips. Don’t go to the questions until you can carry the story.
4. Ask the four questions. Sit in the quiet. Don’t rush to the “right” answer — there isn’t one waiting for you.
5. Write your “I will.”
6. Then pray — the prayer under the passage, or your own. Save it for the end. It’s a response to what you found, not a hint about what you’re supposed to find.
7. Next time you open this, start by asking yourself: did I actually do it? Who did I tell?

The four questions

1. What does this teach me about God?
2. What does it teach me about people — and about me?
3. What am I going to obey this week? (a command to obey, an example to follow, or a promise to trust)
4. Who am I going to tell?

Same four every time. They work on every passage in this list and every passage outside it.

Under each study you’ll find those four printed again, each one paired with another way to ask it. The alternate is optional — it’s the same question wearing the clothes of that particular story. Use it if the standard wording has gone stale on you, or if you’re reading with somebody who needs a different way in. Use the standard four every time and you’ve lost nothing.

About that “I will”

Put a name in it and a date on it. An idea with no name and no date produces nothing.

✗ “I’ll try to be a better person.” ✓ “Thursday I’m going to my brother’s room to ask him to forgive me.”

If you’re doing this with friends

Read it out loud, twice. Retell it together. Everybody answers. Nobody teaches — the second someone starts explaining it, everyone else stops discovering. If somebody says something that isn’t in the story, anybody in the circle can ask, kindly: “Where do you see that in this passage?” You’re not the teacher. The Bible and God’s Spirit are.

How far you go is up to you

	Passages
One study	#1 — start here, always
A month	#1–4
A season	#1–8
All of it	#1–12

Whatever you start, finish.

A few honest notes

• #5 is about sex. Don’t skip it, and don’t over-think it. Read it, tell it back, and answer the four like you would any other week.
• #9 doesn’t end well, and it’s supposed to stay that way. Let it bother you.
• #10 and #11 go together. Don’t do #10 without putting #11 on the calendar.
• #12 is two references on purpose. Acts is the story. Read the single verse from 2 Timothy last, after you’ve told it back, and let it land.
• Question 2 is the one to slow down on — “and about me.” That’s where this stops being a story about somebody else.
• When you miss a week, no shame. Ask yourself what got in the way, and pick the next day.